MARK HOLLAND tells us about this annual continental preview day, held last week.
Sunday 14th April was our annual Bahnfest day, showcasing new and current items from our range of continental suppliers along with layouts and demos from both our staff and invited guests.
This year saw four guest layouts displaying at the show.
John Hills displayed a HOe layout showing a county goods yard in operation. Always an interesting size, Narrow Gauge allows HO modelling alongside the space saving that goes with N Scale track layouts and John was more than happy to enlighten and enthuse people about the subject and the Minitrains locomotives and rolling stock used to populate his layout.
Stephen Davies and Graham Ryder displayed Dietrichsdorf, a HO Scale layout set in the early 1970s. It represents a small station and goods facility and is imagined as a line that serves one of the small villages that have been subsumed into a larger conurbation, from which commuters travel and some smaller companies despatch and receive goods. Stephen and Graham were happy to let visitors have a go with controlling the layout whatever their age. This was especially popular with our younger visitors and really brought the subject to life for them.
Kevin Player displayed Edelweiss - A Taste of Switzerland. Edelweiss is a layout designed to showcase Swiss railways and show what can be achieved with N Scale. Some of you may recognise Kevin as one of our sales reps, traveling the country to enlighten people about our products and his own specialist subject of European N Scale.
Jeff Ware displayed his own Marklin Z Scale layout. This started as a small fun project and grew into a display layout, as many of us know a small quick layout build can take on a life of its own, such is the case here. Jeff was happy to show off the benefits of Z Scale and let people into a few of the secrets of railway modelling in such a small scale.
Along with the visiting (and resident) layouts we had James Hickman, one of our shop staff, demonstrating various techniques for adding that bit of scenic realism to your layout. On the day he was showing how to use several Noch and Gaugemaster Scenics products, demonstrating static grass and seafoam trees while answering questions about the many other techniques than can be used to add that "little something" to your layout.
All in all a good day for both our guests displaying and our staff. It was nice to see our regular customers and many new ones enjoying the event. We all look forward to our next event, our Garden Railway Day on Sunday 26th May 2019.